Your First Ancient Coin

I don't have any experience with acetone. There are different schools of thought about the best way to clean ancient bronze coins. This may not be the proper thread for a lengthy post on the matter. I am fairly new to this board, so perhaps others can point to a thread in which this matter has been covered in detail. For now, let me just say that most opt for a conservative approach to cleaning ancient bronze coins so as to not damage the patina of the coin. For me, this means soaking the coin in olive oil or distilled water for several days and then brushing the coin after periodic soaks. For an overview of approaches, consult this site: http://romancoin.info/complete_guide_to_uncleaned_ancient_coins.htm

 

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Silver Drachm of Alexander The Great 336-323 BC

 

Welcome @MerlinAurelius

 

Thanks a lot! Excited to be part of the community

 

Welcome @MerlinAurelius !

I'll play along - I think these threads are fun. I started off by first accumulating bullion. After I got a couple nicer old US coins I became interested in coin collecting. First it was US but a lot of the attitudes of that kind of collecting don't appeal to me. Besides, after you've seen one quarter you've seen them all. At about the same time two things happened - I discovered military trade tokens and was reading all the ancient coin posts here at CoinTalk. Then a member here who never sells coins had to get rid of some and I purchased a lot of 10 sight unseen LRBs - which included two freebies! Below is a group shot of the coins.

 

Well why not start with an iconic coin?

 

My very first ancient was this Alexander the Great Tetradrachm, that I bought from a Stack's auction in 2011. I probably paid too much for it ($325), but whatever, I like it. It wasn't until late 2015 that I started getting more interested in ancients, and have been increasing my ancient purchases since then.

 

I don't think you overpaid. That's a wonderful coin and because these are popular that drives up the price. I think the hints of toning are nice too.

 

Very nice lot of LRBCs!

 

Thanks! Also I spent $5.42 each!

 

In 2011 I got to check out a cool exhibit of Roman funerary art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, thought it was awesome and started reading some historical fiction about ancient Rome. My dad collected US coins a bit, and I think I was browsing ebay for him when I happened upon some Roman coins about the same time period. I freaked out and bought two I thought looked cool for about 10 bucks each or so. Dad still has his somewhere, he wasn't very impressed by it. I think it was a Constantinian campgate, here's the one I kept for myself.




I was impressed!

 

Just because you're asking @Ken Dorney, I will post it again, although people must get bored of seeing it on every opportunity I have to posting it....

"My grand father, born 1894, has been lucky enough to be involved in the whole WWI. He eventually found three coins, romans he told me, while digging a trench at Verdun battle (1916). After the end of the war, being in a train, back home with two other "poilus" he decided he whould give one coin to each of them and keep the last one for himself. Here it is, a Commodus sestertius (and quite a scarce one but that I dicovered much later) :


Rome mint, AD 192
L AEL AVREL CO---MM AVG P FEL, Laureate head of Commodusright
HERCVLI ROMANO AVG, Hercules facing, head left, holding club and lion's skin, resting on trophy. SC in field
21,01 gr
Ref : RCV #5752, Cohen #203

It is the very first roman coin I have ever possessed, as he gave it to me when I was 18 (ahem, that was in 1978) and the only one in the family to collect coins. It's of course the real start of my addiction for ancient coins.

I can also add this about that coin :

The following comment is taken from the description of a similar example (in far much better condition) in NAC auction 4, # 477 :

Few Roman coins excite as much commentary as those of Commodus, which show him possessed of Hercules. Not only do they present an extraordinary image, but they offer incontrovertible support to the literary record. The reports of Commodus’ megalomania and infatuation with Hercules are so alarming and fanciful that if the numismatic record was not there to confirm, modern historians would almost certainly regard the literary record as an absurd version of affairs, much in the way reports of Tiberius’ depraved behaviour on Capri are considered to be callous exaggerations. Faced with such rich and diverse evidence, there can be no question that late in his life Commodus believed that Hercules was his divine patron. Indeed, he worshipped the demigod so intensely that he renamed the month of September after him, and he eventually came to believe himself to be an incarnation of the mythological hero. By tradition, Hercules had fashioned his knotted club from a wild olive tree that he tore from the soil of Mount Helicon and subsequently used to kill the lion of Cithaeron when he was only 18 years old. Probably the most familiar account of his bow and arrows was his shooting of the Stymphalian birds while fulfilling his sixth labour. The reverse inscription HERCVLI ROMANO AVG (‘to the August Roman Hercules’) makes the coin all the more interesting, especially when put into context with those of contemporary coins inscribed HERCVLI COMMODO AVG, which amounts to a dedication ‘to Hercules Commodus Augustus’.

Q

 

I love this coin and it's story of discovery!

 

Me too! That is the coolest story.

 

It ain't pretty and it ain't exactly a proof, but it is my first ancient and I've had it for over 40 years. I was 17, still at school and couldn't stop holding it and imagining the world that it was used in - a highly romanticised view of the third century Roman Empire I might add.

It is a deep green coloured antoninianus of Gallienus with Salus on the reverse.
I used to polish my coins in those days but I am glad I spared it the Brasso.

 

Great idea for a thread Dorney!

Here is my first proper ancient, it was 1986, I was 14 or 15 and I had already purchased a Medieval Denaro from Genoa Italy (that I still own) and a Byzantine Follis (that i do not still have). I found myself wanting a coin from Medieval England and from the Roman Empire, this is the example from Rome:

Constantine the Great AE 3 Issued AD 329-330, Antioch Mint SR-16359, RIC VII 86

The cost was $5

 

You'll need to start a new thread, with larger and clear pictures of both sides of the coin. Size and weight of the coin will be needed also.

 

Looks like the post was deleted.

 

Just made my first ancient purchase ever and it was from vcoins. Now I'm waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime I have these to stare at and hopefully begin using soon.